Worlds officials nominated

The IIHF named the referees and linesmen for the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Stockholm and Helsinki. It will be a homecoming for Swedish ref Marcus Vinnerborg after two years in the NHL.

The tournament will mark the eighth World Championship for Swiss-Canadian referee Brent Reiber, who officiated in the gold medal games of the last two years, and of Russian referee Vyacheslav Bulanov, who officiated in last year’s bronze medal game.

For two linesmen (Petr Blümel from the Czech Republic, Ivan Dedyulya from Belarus) it will be the seventh World Championship in the zebra jersey.

The 2013 Worlds will also mark the return of Marcus Vinnerborg to the international stage. The Swede’s last major tournament was the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. Later that same year he became the first European NHL referee, but returned to his home country after two years in the NHL and AHL.

For Vinnerborg, who reffed the gold medal games in 2007 and 2008, it will be his fifth World Championship, same as for referees Vladimir Baluska (Slovakia), Daniel Piechaczek (Germany) and Jyri Rönn (Finland), and linesman Sergei Shelyanin (Russia).

Three referees will officiate in their first World Championship after having been assigned to other IIHF events in the past: AHL officials Ian Croft (USA) and Matt Kirk (Canada), and Aleksi Rantala from Finland.